Leclerc beat Verstappen and was left with a rugged Formula 1 qualification in Australia

A new chapter of the Ferrari and Red Bull rivalry was presented this Saturday at the Albert Park circuit, the stage where Formula 1 will run the Australian Grand Prix, valid for date 3 of the 2022 calendar. In a rugged classification that had a captivating definition, Charles Leclerc beat Max Verstappen to take pole position.

The Monegasque rider made a time of 1:17 .896, just a few seconds later that the Dutch world champion had scored the best record. With that lap, the fastest of all weekend, the 24-year-old gave Maranello's team the first ranking in Australia in 15 years. Verstappen finished in second place with a record of 1:18 .154, and was 0.286 of the lead. The other Red Bull, led by Sergio Checo Pérez, completed the qualifying podium after being the fastest in qualifying 2.

“It felt good, I want to say even more because it's a track that I've always had problems on in the past; as a driver, it probably doesn't fit so well and this weekend we really work...” was the first thing Leclerc said when he got off his Ferrari after taking pole.

“It was a bit messy for the free practice session for me, I managed to do some good laps but not all together and in Q3 I managed to put everything together. He feels great and very happy to be on pole tomorrow,” added the native of the Principality of Monaco.

For his part, McLaren improved with the British Lando Norris, who finished in 4th place. It was followed by Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes (5th) and George Russell (6th), while the top ten were completed by Daniel Ricciardo aboard the other McLaren, Frenchman Esteban Ocón (Alpine) and Spaniards Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Alpine).

The son of the historic driver was unable to complete the fastest lap due to a mechanical problem that his compatriot twice had world champion. “I lost the hydraulic and it was blocked in fourth, I couldn't change,” he said in dialogue with his team after hitting the retaining wall at turn 11 and causing the qualifying to stop at the end of the race.

Beyond what happened with the definition of the top positions, a dramatic image was seen in the semi-permanent layout of Melbourne. Canadians Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi collided between turns 5 and 6 of the circuit in qualifying 1 and caused a red flag. Both riders were in the warm-up laps before their final rounds and had switched positions. Latifi tried to overtake Stroll inside at turn 6, but the Aston Martin driver moved to the right and his cars collided. Williams took the brunt, as it was “destroyed”, as the man who starred in the definition of the title in 2021 commented on radio with his team.

Once the track activity ended, the stewards decided to investigate the incident and agreed with Latifi and condemned Stroll from last place after applying a three-place penalty on the grid for Sunday's race. Beyond that measure, Aston Martin's man had not recorded time, so he was going to close the row of F1 cars in Australia.

The FIA applied the Canadian two penalty points added to his superlicense and determined that Stroll had a “lack of knowledge of the situation of Latifi's overtaking maneuver” who was running it inside towards turn 6, which made him guilty of the crash.

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